


The Training "Accident" That Wasn't An Accident

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [135]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Cadre Prime, Canon Compliant, Canonical Child Abuse, Child Abuse, Children, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, Growing up in the cadre system, How canon misled you, Psi Corps, School, Telepath culture, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 10:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15970334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: A post about the time that one of Bester's teachers telepathically attacked him and landed him in the infirmary - and then lied and called it an "accident."This story is canon - I'm explaining what was going on and why (and why his teacher was a liar).The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!





	The Training "Accident" That Wasn't An Accident

**Author's Note:**

> What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

One of my readers asked me to write about a telepathic training accident, of the kind that happens to Bester in Deadly Relations (a 100% canon book), and I was confused. He was never involved in any training "accident."

(Most of the time, if things don't go correctly in training, no one would get hurt anyway - something just wouldn't work, and nothing would happen. But even in a "sparring" context, it would be very difficult for a training accident to occur, with a teacher there the entire time. Dangerous accidents - while rare - happen when a child develops telepathy very strongly and suddenly, and doesn't know his or her own strength, and ends up seriously hurting someone. Most of these cases happen outside the Corps.)

Bester was never involved in any "training accident" because there was no "accident."

I went back and read pages 28-32 again: several things do go wrong, but none of them are "accidents."

Everything bad that happened was permitted, or _inflicted_ , by the teacher himself.

(For more on my thoughts on how telepathy in that scene is depicted, read my essay [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15960467). I'm not going to cover that in this essay as well.)

Two things go wrong.

          1) First, the teacher permits the other student, Simon, to telepathically try to make Bester wet his pants. He's standing right there, and doesn't stop it. This goes wrong for Simon, and Bester ends up (unknowingly) causing the effect to backfire, causing Simon to wet his pants instead. The teacher's attitude seems to be "and that's what you get, Simon, for doing that." He apparently has set _no rules_ for appropriate conduct in sparring - for TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS. (Simon is another child in Cadre Prime, who entered Cadre Prime (and perhaps the Corps) a little later - he was at least seven years old, and probably entered older than that.)

          2) Then the second thing goes wrong, which much more serious than the first, and that is that once Simon has left the room and Bester is alone, he telepathically attacks him himself. This is what lands Bester in the infirmary for two hours, unconscious, apparently having fallen flat on his face, because he wakes up with a face covered in blood.

          Then the teacher says that Bester basically did this to himself, and the teacher is only at fault for letting him "push himself too hard."

No, you cannot knock yourself unconscious for two hours by "pushing too hard" (in self-defense). He collapsed because the teacher _attacked him_ (note how that ends with the teacher projecting an octopus with a giant gun, and later actually admitting aloud that he attacked Bester). Bester, being only twelve, was unable to successfully defend himself, and then he fell on his face and got even more injured. (We aren't told if he was unconscious that long because the telepathic attack or because he hit his head, or both).

To back up a bit:

This incident took place shortly before Bester and the others graduated from the cadres, and Cadre Prime was uniquely and exceptionally abusive to the children. Teacher Roberts, the teacher involved here, was one of those same teachers (and the nurse who runs the school infirmary was _also_ one of the abusive staff, as Bester finds out during the graduation "ritual"). Teacher Roberts has permitted Simon to try to make Bester wet himself because he is _trying_ to create a school climate based on humiliation and fear. Teacher Roberts attacks Bester supposedly "for his own good" but actually because again, he is _trying_ to create a school climate where punishments are increasingly random and brutal. Bester himself thinks about this shortly after, in the context of how the "Grins" have been behaving lately, not knowing that Teacher Roberts is one of the Grins:

Deadly Relations, page 33: "In the last year or so, the Grins had become more and more arbitrary with their punishments and scans. It should be obvious to everyone how unfair it was, but the adults never seemed to notice the change, even when it went on right in front of them."

This "training" incident happens at the end of Bester's final year, when the teachers were being especially arbitrary and brutal. They are _trying_ to humiliate the children. Shortly after this scene, they come to the children's rooms and order them to strip naked and march across the quad. That's the context.

This was _no accident_.

As I wrote in this first essay [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12665913), describing the origins of these uniquely abusive practices:

          Discipline in the Corps was always strict, and Cadre Prime took that to extremes. But beyond that, the students of Cadre Prime also suffered unique, bizarre, arbitrary, and even at times _ritualized_ abuse at the hands of teachers - abuse that at times bears little to no connection to the larger, "true" values of the Corps in a deeper sense.

          Bester himself figures this out, as he watches the graduation "ritual" with horror, and this discovery is a pivotal point in his life.

          So I need to discuss the abuse. Not defend it. _Behind the Gloves_ , as stated in [the introduction](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590), stands as Bester's defense: legally, socially, and historically.

          **I am defending _him_. And I am defending the Corps. Not his abusers, who distort the values of the Corps and hurt children.**

As I explain in that essay and later, in my [second essay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680634) on child abuse in Cadre Prime:

  * Cadre Prime was the most elite of all cadres in the Corps. Those twenty-five, maybe thirty students each year - out of the whole Corps of millions - were hand-picked for the most prestigious jobs upon reaching adulthood. They became high-level administrators. They became teachers. They became whatever they wanted. But they had also survived a system that was, at times, uniquely abusive.


  * Only Cadre Prime, out of the whole Corps, had "monitors" (aka "Grins"), endured abuse such as above, and underwent a graduation ritual like what we see in canon. (That's 25-30 children each year out of a Corps of _millions_ of people.)


  * Even though the teachers point out how unique and special the children are to be who they are, and to be undergoing such a ritual, canon is misleading by **_never showing us any other experiences of children growing up in the Corps._** Bester's experience is (many times) in canon discussed as being special and atypical, but it's all we see. (Talia gets a few sentences in one episode, and Lyta was raised in Cadre Prime - she went through the same abuse as Bester did.) Thus, it appears to readers that the "monitors," and the abusive graduation ritual, are actually typical in the Corps (no), and that child abuse is consistent with the larger values of the Corps (also no).


  * It seems that the whole horrible idea of "monitors," and what they do, was dreamt up by Director Vacit, out of a belief that collectively surviving this kind of abuse would somehow make the Cadre Primers better members of the Corps, and would improve the Corps as a whole. Kevin Vacit didn't have large-scale plans for the Oppression of All the Telepaths (Crawford) or the Murder/Sale of All The Telepaths (Johnston) - he did ultimately want what was best for telepaths collectively, and for the human race - but he was, in some ways, a brutal son of a bitch.


  * It is not clear exactly when these abusive practices began, but from dates given in canon and age inferences, it seems it all started with the formation of Cadre Prime, at the very beginning of the Corps, in 2156, when Vacit took over.



Canon presents Teacher Roberts' attack of Bester as taking place literally the same day as the abusive graduation ritual. (I think this was a mistake, and the incident with Roberts took place a few days before, and was condensed in the book for the sake of time.) It is true that when Bester woke up in the infirmary, Teacher Roberts gave him a random, obscure topic about Siberian shamans or some-such to read about that night, handing him the whole book and telling him that's what his final exam would be on the next day. This was, as stated in canon, "typical of Teacher Roberts."

And he reminded Bester, as the teachers had been telling the Cadre Prime children all along, that if they failed their exams they would never graduate to the Minor Academy.

(This was all a complete lie, of course - everyone graduates to **_middle school_**. But the teachers wanted to keep the children in a permanent state of fear. Thus they were always threatening them that they would fail and be kicked out of school, which for a twelve-year-old born in the Corps who knows nothing other than his life at school, would be seen as a fate worse than death.)

So, to be clear, when Bester beats Simon in the telepathic sparring match, and Simon, humiliated and covered in his own pee, leaves the room to clean himself up, Teacher Roberts telepathically attacks Bester. Bester then wakes up in the infirmary, his face covered in blood.

The teacher is there, and apologizes - but for "letting Bester push himself too hard." ???

He says that Bester's been out for two hours, but he's going to be OK, and they just kept him there for "observation," not for any actual medical concerns. (When he's been unconscious for two hours after apparently falling on his face.)

Then Teacher Roberts says he did it for Bester's "own good":

          "I want you to understand that I wasn't trying to hurt you, Al. But in your contest with Simon, I noticed a certain self-congratulatory smugness. You're good for your age, and you push yourself harder than anyone I've ever seen - too hard, in fact, as this incident demonstrates - but there are mind rippers out there who can make what just happened to you seem like a thump on the nose. It would be a disservice for me not to help you understand that, now, before you make a habit of overconfidence."

Again, it's not possible for Bester to have inflicted such injuries on _himself_ , but he doesn't know this at twelve, and he believes anything the teachers tell him as the truth, even that he won't graduate to middle school if he fails his (intentionally arbitrary) exams. He doesn't question _anything_ the teachers say or do until [the final abusive ritual](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680634), when he alone refuses to participate and screams at the teachers to stop.

So yes, it's true that Bester can be a little smug at that age. But it's _also_ true that the teachers are looking for literally _anything_ they can use to humiliate the children. They go after them for anything and everything - for example, they project to all the other children how humiliated Milla felt when she first got her period and hid in the bathroom, her underwear covered in blood. There is _no way_ to get around their humiliation and abuse. This just happens to be this teacher's excuse to abuse Bester.

He's also hardly one to lecture anyone else about the dangers posed by rogue telepaths. Teacher Roberts may also be P12, but he's spent his life as a teacher in Geneva, and may never have spent a day as a Psi Cop in the field. Hell, he likely failed out of the program, but got to be a teacher in Cadre Prime instead because he himself had been a Cadre Primer, so he had the connections. (Only former Cadre Primers can teach in Cadre Prime.)

If he had been Psi Cop material, he'd be out in the field. It's not like you can't be both a Psi Cop _and_ a teacher (at least of older students), as Bey demonstrates. Roberts probably ended up teaching the ten- to twelve-year-olds because he failed the MetaPol exams - and for all we know, he may never have lived a day outside of Teeptown.

This is the guy lecturing Bester on what he's going to face out in the field, and implicitly threatening him (as other teachers do elsewhere) that he might not graduate from what is essentially grade school.

Once Bester's awake, he attacks him again, physically this time. He tells Bester they're playing rock-paper-scissors, Bester wins, and guess what Teacher Roberts does? ( **See note below** ):

          "Teacher Roberts reached out, very quickly, and grabbed Al's hand at thumb and little finger, twisting it around. Al yelped, involuntarily, in surprise and pain."

Again, whatever he claims the "point" of this is, the real point is that he's the teacher, and he can do anything he wants Bester or the other children, physically or mentally, as long as he somehow claims this is "for their own good." This goes _directly_ against the values the teachers were teaching Bester and the others when they are little - that to hurt another member of the Corps, for your own sense of superiority, or for any other selfish reason, is _wrong_.

So the teachers just couch everything as "for your own good" and "for the good of the Corps" rather than about their own power and control over the children, so it's "OK." Except it's not OK.

          " _I_ win," Roberts said. "I win because I don't acknowledge that there was a rock or scissors. Only our hands. And my hand is bigger, faster, stronger, more skillful than yours. You see?" He released Al's hand as quickly as he had taken it.

Yeah, he wins because he's bigger and stronger and older, and because Bester is in the infirmary with a head injury and didn't expect the teacher to hurt him again.

Then the book veers off into even more absurd territory with the teacher claiming that Psi Cops are supposed to "break the rules," that that's what it means to be a Psi Cop. (Maybe this is why Roberts himself flunked out?)

          "Yes. I see," Al said. _You cheated. You broke the rules._

          Teacher Roberts caught that, and his eyes glittered. _Exactly, Al. Exactly. You have a decision coming. This is the end of this session, and you'll be going to the Minor Academy next, if you pass. If you aren't comfortable with breaking rules, I suggest you take business prep courses. If you want to be a Psi Cop, though..._

(And there's one of the instances of him being told, again, that he'll only graduate to middle school "if he passes.")

As for the rest of this, what? P12s do not get tracked into business prep courses. This is another bullshit "threat." And a kid like Bester, a P12 from Cadre Prime, would never get tracked into business prep courses. They'd shove him into administration somewhere if he didn't cut it as a Psi Cop or want to be a teacher. Teacher Roberts obviously knows how this works, just like he knows that everyone graduates to middle school, so again, _he's just lying_. And he's also lying that being a Psi Cop is about "breaking the rules."

Being a Psi Cop is about **_enforcing the rules_**. Yes, there are times where it's a life-or-death situation and people break rules (for example, when Fatima had been kidnapped by traffickers and Bey was trying to beat the clock to find her alive), but this isn't what "being a Psi Cop" is about. It's about _enforcing the rules_ , and thereby protecting your own people.

The only ones who make up rules and then arbitrarily break them to hurt others - children - are the teachers in Cadre Prime.

Again, I can just guess that this attitude is why Roberts didn't make it through the Psi Cop program. Asshole.

**Author's Note:**

> There's an extra layer to the abuse here that readers probably didn't catch (and for all I know, Keyes didn't even think of), and that's what hands represent in telepath culture. While it's also true that Bester is still in the cadres here and hasn't yet gotten gloves, it's still _really not OK_ in the Corps to grab someone else's hands - and bare hands, here - let alone to do so in order to hurt the other person.
> 
> Once telepaths graduate from the cadres, they do not touch each other barehanded unless they are immediate family members or intimate.
> 
> Obviously the teacher had his gloves on, but this is not just "I tricked you at rock-paper-scissors" and some lesson about breaking rules. The teacher didn't just break the rules by cheating in the game, or by hurting Bester physically - he broke rules by grabbing his hand at all. The meaning was, in effect, "You have no boundaries I cannot cross, 'for your own good'." It's the same as when he and the other teachers, written as occurring _the same day_ , order the kids to strip naked and march across the quad. It's a privacy violation, and another show of dominance and power over the children, telepathically, physically, and emotionally.


End file.
